'It was striking that an English final in the Europa League took so long'

Wednesday, 15 May 2019

In the media

'It was striking that an English final in the Europa League took so long'

Thomas Peeters, Sports Economist at Erasmus School of Economics

Arsenal and Chelsea have qualified for the Europa League final, completing an historic week with European football’s two major finals now featuring Premier League teams. The London clubs will face one another in Baku on 29 May while Liverpool will take on Tottenham in the Champions League final in Madrid on 1 June.

Thomas Peeters, sports economist at Erasmus School of Economics, is surprised that, from a purely financial point of view, it took so long to get an English final in the Europa League. With the financial situation of the English clubs it was to be expected that one day it would happen: 4 clubs from England in the final of the Champions League and the Europa League.

Peeters: ‘In the Champions League the English clubs still have competition from Bayern and the Spanish clubs, among others. I do not expect that we will have English finals there every year. But the English clubs that are just below the top 5 are really much richer than the numbers 5 to 10 from Spain or Germany.’